Martin Whitmarsh: “The stewards took a decision. I didn’t anticipate the severity of that penalty ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ I don’t think many people did, frankly. With hindsight you can revisit your decisions. I stand by what we did. We have to accept that there was less fuel in the car than we anticipated. We were fully open with the FIA.”

“GP2, the previous championship which was promoted by Briatore and is now owned by the Formula One group is a major league rip-off. Teams cannot use parts unless they are supplied by he series, and these are supplied at a huge premium to normal prices.”

“There was one karting race when I was something like 14 years-old. I was in second place and I said to myself I will wait until the last lap and then I will then get him. On the corner I had planned to pass him, he defended and I didn?óÔé¼Ôäót expect that and he won the race. So what I took home from that day was that you shouldn?óÔé¼Ôäót wait forever to make your move.”

“The air outside the Ferrari enclave is becoming increasingly foul and I bear left as leave, aiming towards the end of the paddock where the horizon looks clearest. I try not to inhale while walking, but the back of my throat feels odd for the next couple of hours. If that’s what it’s like for me, on the fringe, I hate to think how it must have been for those closer to the blaze.”

“Before the start of the season I decided to look at what teams released and when so that I could write about it here. I?óÔé¼Ôäóve never previously taken a look across all the teams in this way, and what I found surprised me to the extent that I questioned whether or not the teams in one of the most commercial sports in the world have got it right.”

Comment of the day

As usual we had lots of great suggestions for the Caption Competition – particularly those from Blunt, Asanator and MatthewF1.

114 comments on Ferrari may drop Massa in August break – Petrov

Since the time I read about it, I was hoping someone would address whether this whole “GP1″ concept was even remotely credible. I mean, it didn’t seem credible to me, but what do I know? I’m glad to see the suggestion that it’s probably just a bargaining tactic.

Briatore writing rules? That is like handing over the keys to the bank to Bonnie and Clyde.

There are a lot of things I don’t like about Joe Saward, but one thing I do like is his hard line against the likes of Briatore being involved in F1. And boy is he ever not shy about criticizing Ferrari!

yep, it ain’t good! There was speculation at the start of the season Massa’s contract guaranteed him 10 races this year so that works out the same as what Petrov is saying. But who are they going to replace him with??

I just cant see Massa collecting any points so you might as well put a new driver in asap. Let them get a race weekend under their belts, focus on getting to know the car and if they don’t get any points – well neither would Massa. Then they have a break to go back to the factory, work on the simulator having experienced driving the actual car, and be in a much stronger position for the next race.

Ferrari bought Kimi out of a whole year’s contract (albeit with linked sponsorship money), surely they’d have no trouble getting Massa to move aside if they really wanted to, regardless of any contract.

The fact they got rid of Raikkonen under those circumstances makes it all the more surprising Massa has lasted this long. His driving has been far worse in the last two-and-a-bit years than Raikkonen’s was before he got the chop.

It was very different circumstances though. They had to make way for Alonso, and they could hardly get rid of Massa without looking cruel, and Massa and Raikkonen had had similar pace over the preceding 18 months. I do wish Massa had been let go- I don’t even like the guy but it would be much less sad to see him coming up to speed with a smaller team than jumping back in a Ferrari against Alonso. And it would have also meant 2010 would have seen an Alonso-Raikkonen pairing.

@todfod Not that i’m a fan of Petrov,but why?Is he getting stomped by his teammate like it was suggested that he will be,by some on this forum.What makes you think that he hasn’t much time left in f1.He doesn’t seem to have less speed than Kovalainen,in a car that Kovalainen is used to drive,together with the team he is more familiar with than Petrov.Not to mention that he comes with hefty sponsorship money.If he stays even points wise with Kovalainen,Petrov is there to stay.

@davidwhite, @todfod, @funkyf1 – If you read the interview (I think I saw a video of it from Renault as well), he is being asked wether he thinks Massa will be replaced imminently. So instead of speculation from his side about a soon to be exit for Massa, he rather turns down the concept in his answer, saying something like that is really far off and Ferrari will give him at least another few months (as @prisoner-monkeys writes). He also says, that he does not see anyhing like Ferrari putting more pressure on Massa, rather the contrary

@BasCB I hear you mate, it was only sarcasm on my behalf, just admiring the media making something of nothing as usual. Poor headline for an article IMO, very miss leading, but I guess that’s the objective.

I wouldn’t say its misleading @funkyf1, just all of us look at it from the expectation to see everyone talk about how soon Ferrari will drop Massa, so most of us don’t think the other way around, i.e. that Petrov is talking they might stick with their lineup and thinks a change will certainly not be made before August.

Just seen the Schumacher footage with him blocking Hamilton last weekend. I can’t believe he didn’t get a serious penalty for that! The quality of these stewards is truly appalling. These drivers set the standard for the rest of the world and are role models for many kids and young drivers. I dread to think what sort of moves i’m going to start to see down my local kart track with idiotic driving like this.

Aside from the deliberate blocking etc, surely it should have been a straight penalty for deliberately leaving the track – a new rule that was brought in this year?

Yeah the inconsistancy of the stewards remains consistant. I guess MS must think that in FP this sort of thing is acceptable, yet in a race when he literally runs into the back of Senna and takes himself and Senna out and the debris damages SV’s front wing, it’s Senna that is the ‘idiot.’ This guy truly thinks he is above the law, and unfortunately, too often in his career, the stewards turning a blind eye, because he is MS, has reinforced that.

@davidwhite…your comment about a poor role model for up and coming karters is something I have been saying with regards to MS for most of his career. The whack on DH, the whack on JV, the big swerves off the start line, the shoving of people off the track…it goes on and on. It doesn’t take a genius to use your car as a battering ram, or to bully people off the track. Any one of us could do that for the ‘win’. It doesn’t take any talent to do that. MS is a bully and this weekend really sealed that up…typical of a bully, he takes Senna out and costs SV front wing damage, but Senna is the idiot…that’s classic bullying 101. Sad thing is, I fully expect his 5 spot penalty at Monaco will not teach him a lesson…no penalty has changed that leopard’s spots so far, so why would this one, especially when it was ‘someone else’s fault’.

“Think of the children” is not really an argument, and you are relying on it quite heavily. More specifically, do you really expect people to be ramming each other off the road in everyday traffic because they saw Schumacher do it on track? That’s almost the same as blaming rock music and video games for every violent act a young person does.
Read up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_interests_(rhetoric)

It’s not about people driving on the road – it’s about young karting drivers. Just the same as premiership football games set the standard for what is/isn’t a foul so F1 sets the standard for etiquette on the track. If you see Schumacher doing this sort of stuff and getting away with it, it’s only going to be repeated in the lower formulas and someone’s going to get badly hurt.

@Robbie@Davidwhite “poor role model for kids…” Wow just see this and i think both of you got a poor judgment jut trying to degrading Schumacher career, well in case of Damon Hill in my opinion, some and including the respected F1 community Murray Walker think it’s not Schumacher fault and he just regaining his racing line, Senna he got the penalty but some still arguing it’s a racing incident and Vette; is one of has the same view ” “In those situations we don’t have much time of course,” he said, “and you can get very great speed differences (between the cars) on the straights.

“I think it should be classified simply in the category of racing accidents. Unfortunately it happens,” said the reigning world champion.

“Of course you can always say what is what afterwards,” added Vettel, “just as you can say that it always takes two to tango.” Hamilton he got reprimand but he wasn’t intentionally want to ram Hamilton, Schumacher overshoot the corner because he think Hamilton has held him up and contrary to your exaggerating view well off course especially @Robbie one sided view toward Schumacher and contrary to stewards view think it’s a minor one and one that doesn’t need a serious penalty and you guys talking like Schumacher is the only F1 driver in history that ever got reprimand, penalty etc etc FUNNY. And for JV one yes it is wrong but he got punishment for what he did so did other drivers that making it so stating “bad as a role model” blah blah just way of exaggerating your view, they(the drivers which doing mistake) got punishment and i don’t think the young drivers will or do it you guys are talking like they are stupid or something they can see if you done a wrong thing you got punished if the kind of move(aggressive ectc etc) does occur in lower F1 it might down to their own racing style and it got a written rule so there is a penalty for that and there isn’t a evidence like your guys accusing that all take Schumacher as a role model if so i believe they can see which one is right to act which one is wrong. Once again Schumacher was not the only drivers that got punish for the mistake it happen in F1 way before Schumacher career start so come on blame all the drivers in F1 and make it like an American Idol contest!!!

@Steve…I don’t rely heavily on ‘think of the children’ as an argument against behaviour such as MS has made a career of displaying…it is just an unfortunate spinoff and you are way off base implying that davidwhite or myself were extending that to how people would behave in normal everyday traffic. We are making an accurate comparison to how MS’s behaviour could influence up and coming karters, the one’s that would be watching and dreaming about F1 closely.

But you’re rely heavily on one sided view against Schumacher and this case “poor role model for kids” so @Steve made a valid point there. Like i explained it above he got punished for what he did so did others drivers that make mistake so you are in a way poor of jugdement using this to degrade Schumacher as before and after Schumacher enter F1 incident happen in F1 and you can see the ruthless kind of driving down before Schumacher’. The point was like i already said above, you so called “the one dreaming about F1″ wouldn’t think of doing it because there is a written rule and if they broke it they will serve the punishment so yours argument on this is not a really valid point.

Just think…if rules had been upheld pertaining to fair play, there’s a good chance Schumacher would have been banned from F1 after the Jerez ’97 incident.

Unfortunately he did a great deal in bringing disrepute to F1 over the last 18 years. Ironic is how he was teamed up with another scumbag in Flavio Briatore. Perfect combination for breaking rules and not having any sense of ethics.

@DK…yeah the frustrating thing about Jerez 97 was that Mosely had warned all drivers to not interfere with the MS/JV battle for the WDC. He said that any such behaviour would result in a 3-race ban at the start of the 98 season. So MS commits about the biggest crime one could commit on the track, that being to physically try to take JV out of the race using his car as a battering ram (because that’s what genius multi-WDCs do for ‘success’ and to ‘win’ and still be able to sleep at night after pumping one’s fists in the ‘glory’ of it), only manages to take himself out of contention, and only gets a meaningless penalty, nothing to do with what he had warned. So in that case both MS and MM were terrible role models.

But you’re rely heavily on one sided view against Schumacher and this case “poor role model for kids” so @Steve made a valid point there. Like i explained it above he got punished for what he did so did others drivers that make mistake so you are in a way poor of jugdement using this to degrade Schumacher as before and after Schumacher enter F1 incident happen in F1 and you can see the ruthless kind of driving down before Schumacher’. The point was like i already said above, you so called “the one dreaming about F1″ wouldn’t think of doing it becasue there is a written rule and if they broke it they will serve the punishment so yours argument on this is not a really valid point.

mmm your view agains Schumacher really more and more devalue your post, you are talking like FIA didn’t do anything about that the fact was contrary to your one sided view your own F1 he did got punish and disqualified from championship points and yes he is genius multiple WDC otherwise no trusted and reliable sorces would write about his greatness not only his mistake like your 99 roblem, and guess what his 7 WDC is out of from controversial things but pure hadwork, dedication, genius and raw speed. And for our info that role model stuff really a no sense comparison like i already stated above many Top drivers in F1 made kind of mistake but there is penalty. If you google it Senna-Prost crash places as top or one of dirtiest or controversial thing in F1

once more thing try to write an article in a trusted sources like F1 Racing or Autosport(if they find it value article i dount there will think so about your poor one sided view LOL) and see what people think.

About 1997 Ross Brawn said it all : “”Michael is one of my heroes because he has this unbelievable ability,It came home to me in 1997 at the Nurburburg weekend he took us all to the kart track he owns in Kerpen .We all had a go,then at the end of the night he jumped into this 125cc thing and spent 5 minutes giving a demonstration,it was just incredable because the thing was never pointing straight,it was at an angle the whole time” Ross Brawn

He’s pretty specialand it’s such a tragedy that he is so misunderstood in the way he is.I won’t argue that there are some things he does which don’t help out you will always have the group who have a go at him.They should balence that against the entertainment he gives us when he gets it right.He has made some great races in 97 and 98,Imagine how tedious it would have been without Michael around”….Ross Brawn-“

Senna also did some things that were not good for young up and coming karters to see, and I say that as a huge Senna fan. As to meaningful penalties Senna got them in 89 and it is debateable that he even did anything wrong. “At the FIA hearing in Paris later the same week Senna’s disqualification was not only upheld, but an additional US$100,000 fine and suspended six-month ban were imposed on the driver. Ever since the incident, there has been much debate as to whether Prost intentionally ran into Senna, whether Senna was overambitious in his overtaking manoeuvre, or whether the collision was simply a racing incident between two embittered team-mates.”

And in 90, again at Suzuka, Senna earned pole and Balestre, being French and favouring Prost, changed the rule mid-weekend and put Senna on the dirty side of the track. ie. it was Balestre that set up the circumstances for that collision that weekend. And unfortunately that was not apparent at the time it happened and so I’m sure it was also not good for the youth to see. But at least Senna’s two main incidents were for specific reasons, nothing to do with the career long bad behaviour of MS. And and one point MS even excused his behaviour by saying he learned it from Senna. I found that to be extremely poor of him, and again, terrible for the youth to hear…MS could have taken the high road, but chose not to and instead used some specific incidents of Senna as a crutch to blame his own bad behaviour on, and he made a career of it, right up until this year’s Spanish GP…blame someone else.

As to your quote from Ross Brawn…gee what a shock…Brawn complimenting MS…did you think that was going to change my opinion? In fact it is the opposite…that quote shows you being more one-sided about MS than me.

Ah a Senna fan no wonder….yes 1989 some ssaid it was Prost some said it was Senna and speaking of the 1990 incident somehow prove your one sided view toward Michael that think only you or Schumacher hter would agree me think. No matter what the some call injustise toward Senna the behaviour by ramming other driver just because you think you were treated unfairly was wrong and that happened in really a high speed dangerous manouever. I don’t know Vettel seem to think it was racing incident and judging from the video and pic i do think so too so you have your view and others have them. But by saying and placing a one sided view toward Michael base on his mistake or controversial thing which some still not clear wheter he was wrong or right and other drivers including your Senna also made a questionable thing during their career in F1 just showing your poor judgment against him. Speaking of your Senna this is a link where some of Senna darkside been reveal although personally i question some of the contents in the site but think it can took into account hearing from both side not just Senna side or for ex your one sided view against Schumacher or i got 99 problem against Schumacher contrary to trusted sources or book about Schumacher: http://www.prostfan.com/senna2.htm

But think Brawn quote has more value rather than your one sided against Schumacher and read it above i never wanted to change your mind just stating your no sense and defending Schumacher base on more reliable sources…Got it? and here again i think Brawn give another reasonable quotes: http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/79246.html

And I’m just responding to what I think is your one-sided view too. eg. I admit that I was a Senna fan, but I also admit that his behaviour was at times no better for the youth to see than MS’s, and yet you still want to argue it. So even when I come half way you still need to state arguments from what YOU consider to be trusted sources like mine couldn’t possibly be trusted, including more quotes from Brawn that I don’t even need to read to know are always going to favour MS. You have your side, I have mine…let’s leave it at that. You seem to only appear on this site when someone says something negative about MS, so I think it is you that are the one-sided one. I won’t be returning to this topic as there is nothing more I can add.

Same here i think yours one is way out of bias against Schumacher, if you read it my posts carefully i stated that Michael is wrong in JV cases and defending him reasonably and on the other hand i think yours just put a ones sided view exaggerating it eventhough some of the case is still not a clear cut Schumacher fault like blaming Schumacher with Jamie incident last year where it clearly wasn’t his fault that is one of. Like i said above blaming Schumacher toward the youth thing just really a poor poor judgment from your bias against him like the FIA didn’t punish Schumacher in JV case which they did, they will know if done a wrong thing there are rule and beofre this you just mention all blaming toward Schumacher whereas the Senna-Prost incident was one of the dirtiest thing happen in F1. Funny back at you, you seem to appear in every Schumacher article just to degrading him with your one sided view, yes i defending him but i’m not blinded by it and stating his flaw without exaggerating it like yours and much quoting from trusted sources and yes trusted sources from team member, ex drivers, drivers, books, magazine, article etc etc. I don’t said yours is not trusted but somehow some of your opinions think just way bias against Schumacher, like i said before try posting an article with your current view about Schumacher to F1 racing or doing an interview in F1 broadcast and see how people cope with that since in here you have yours and i responded and it will be no ending story.

“You seem to only appear on this site when someone says something negative about MS” correction i appear to this site not something negative about MS but if a bias or i think no sense post against him(like yours), i don’t responded to a fair criticism post

@keithcollantine Ah my bad, sorry you had to point that out. Unbelievable that the class of Ferrari ’06 are having such a terrible season. Schumachers gesture’s certainly make it seem like an unsavoury action.

Of everything that’s happened, how much has been Whitmarsh’s fault? I’d say not much. You can’t blame him for pit-stop errors and silly things like not filling the car with enough fuel. Yeah, he was bending the truth when talking to the press immediately after qualifying, but I’m sure every other team principal would do the same if they were put in that extraordinary position.

Letâ€™s put it another way: would these troubles have happened under Ron Dennis?

Ever heard of spygate? Small incident costing McLaren 100 million euros. And costing Ron the position as team principle, Rons mistakes were costly and created a lot of bad feeling towards McLaren, this is not the 80’s when you have to rule outfits with an iron fist, to get the best people working for you, you have to create an environment and culture for success, times change as to peoples relevance to their industry. Rons time has passed, and simply to blame McLarens issues on Whitmarsh is the same as atributing all red Bulls success to christian Horner……….and we all know thats not true!

Well said @bigbadderboom Whitmarsh has a long way to go to top Ron’s exploits. These teams are forced to be so dynamic, it is better to cultivate the talent you have. Plus, if I was in Whitmarsh’s shoes I wouldn’t want to run the risk of firing people, it would be quite easy for your competitors to snap them up.

and thats why? domenicali doesnt construct the car..otherwise this team doing everything almost perfect right now..from boxes to strategy..as montezemelo said domenicali is held responsible mostly for logistic…whitmarsh on other hand was lying again to public

Um, isn’t the winner of the caption competition pretty inappropriate…..Given the massive fire in the garage i don’t think joking about bring 70 candles on a birthday cake out of the garage is the funniest or most appropriate comment.

Why do you watch F1 when so many injustices are happening in the world? Should’nt you be campaigning against something or signing a petition somewhere rather that inappropriately wasting time writing comments here?

Liegate was different in one critical respect @US_Peter – lies were told.

In this case McLaren didn’t appear to have lied, they simply put forward an argument to try to minimise the impact of their own mistake – it didn’t work but it would have been wrong of them not to try.

It wasn’t a lie, it was a defence.They were obviously clear about what happened and why so thee wasn’t any lying involved. They hoped they could get force majure just in case that covered the fact that it was a genuine mistake by one team member rather than premeditated. It wasn’t likely to work, but there isn’t any reason why somebody shouldn’t try that.

It seems it was mostly about politicking and who offers them a base for free. This is the “old” tennis palace and was offered to them for free as well, guess when Valencia didn’t budge, they just tried elsewhere!

@Sangeen Khan Not that bashing Petrov is something new on this forum ,or any other for that matter,thing is that Massa’s performance of late makes Petrov look like a boss.And wouldn’t it be funny to if Petrov replaced Massa in a Ferrari,he’d be better than him for sure.He scored podiums in Lotus Renault where Massa couldn’t with almighty Ferrari,nuff said …..

Or it could be that the car simply doesn’t suit FM and Petrov could easily find himself in the same situation, with a car that has him handcuffed to do anything about. When Petrov wins a race, let alone nearly has a WDC in his hand, perhaps then I will respect his opinion on other drivers’ careers more. For now, I don’t think VP has the cache in F1 to be speaking of others’ careers. When asked he could have easily just been diplomatic and said something like it seems the Ferrari doesn’t suit FM and we all have known all along that a driver is coloured by his car.

Don’t know how Petrov could be being ‘honest’ when he couldn’t possibly know what Ferrari’s intentions are for FM and so he is merely speculating. I agree with honesty and that it can be refreshing in today’s F1, which is why I don’t think he should be participating in speculation. Not to mention, saying the Ferrari doesn’t seem to suit FM, and a driver is coloured by his car, is honesty.